SHILLONG: As the completion date for the Umiam-Jorabat Expressway project draws near, the Umsning Bypass continues to be a major bottleneck in the successful completion of the long-awaited project.
The work along the entire stretch has picked up its pace in the last three months of 2013 and the implementing agency is committed to completing the work in those stretches where land has already been handed over by the State Government.
Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner Pooja Pandey admitted that Umsning Bypass remains a major bottleneck even as she stated that Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, has been published inviting objections.
“We are trying to speed up the land acquisition process,” she said.
According to Pandey, the district administration is reviewing the project on a weekly basis and the implementing agency is being continuously asked to speed up the construction work.
Construction work on the Expressway had come to a complete stop during the Monsoon and resumed only in September last year.
The Deputy Commissioner informed that necessary land was made available to the company initially, but later, the company asked for additional land for the project for which the district administration is currently working on the land acquisition.
The 62km Jorabat-Umiam Expressway project has been taken up by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) as the implementing agency to be completed at an estimated budget of Rs 536 crore.
As per the initial agreement, IFLS had assigned Ramky Infrastructure with the task of constructing the Expressway from Jorabat to Lad Umroi.
The latter entered into a sub contract agreement with YFC Projects Private Ltd. for construction of the Expressway from Umdihar to Lad Umroi.
Ramky Infrastructure has undertaken the task of constructing the Expressway from Jorabat to Umdihar.
